How proposals for criminal justice reform may bring NC Democrats and Republicans together

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein won re-election in a surprisingly close race when he edged Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill by less than 1 percent of the vote.

Stein, a Democrat, said the tight margin “shows how politically divided North Carolina is.” But now he has a second-term priority that he thinks both Democrats and Republicans will support: criminal justice reform.

“Even in this era of partisanship, criminal justice reform has been an area where we’ve been able to work together,” Stein said. He cited bipartisan support for the STOP Act, which limits the quantity of opioids that can be prescribed, and the SAFE Child Act, which revamped sexual assault laws and protects children from online predators.

Now even broader changes in the criminal justice system are about to be proposed by a task force headed by Stein and state Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls. Recommendations from the 24-member group will be presented to Gov. Roy Cooper on Dec. 15.

The proposed changes could begin a much needed transformation that would make North Carolina a national leader in rethinking policing and punishment. “We wanted to take a comprehensive look at the criminal justice system to identify when disparities occur and how to eliminate those disparities so our criminal justice system is truly fairer and more just,” Stein told the Editorial Board.

Cooper established the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice in June in response to protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The recommendations will call for changes in policing regarding use of force and accountability and in the hiring and training of police. But Stein stressed that the changes will be about relieving police, not cutting funding. Instead, he said, more should be spent on mental health care and drug treatment while the police focus on crime and public safety.

“We put too much on law enforcement,” the attorney general said. “We ask them to clean up problems that should be addressed in different fashions.”

The group’s recommendations won’t mean much if they’re not adopted, but prospects for change are good. Some of the recommendations can be adopted by counties, cities and towns. Others can be put in place by changes in state administrative policy.

The hardest reforms to achieve will be legal changes that will need to be passed by the Republican-led General Assembly. But even there, progress can be expected. Republican lawmakers have been receptive to changes in the criminal justice system.

For instance, two new laws that ease the punitive effects of the system took effect Dec. 1. The First Step Act allows judges to deviate from mandatory sentences for drug trafficking when the case involves a first-time, nonviolent offense that arises from the offender’s admitted addiction. The Second Chance Act makes it easier for people to get their records cleared of low-level criminal convictions and cases in which they were found not guilty or the charges were dismissed.

Given that record, agreement on further changes looks possible. Earls, the task force co-chair, said in a statement, “Surely interventions that reduce the number of people in the criminal justice system or otherwise reduce the costs of operating that system while continuing to appropriately protect the public are attractive to policymakers from every party. If we can do it better for less money, I expect there is broad support.”

Tarrah Callahan, a task force member and executive director of Conservatives for Criminal Justice Reform, said she expects the recommendations to get a favorable reception in the legislature. She said the group’s law enforcement members succeeded in “tamping down some ideas that are too lofty. We need to be taking meaningful steps without throwing so much out there that is just pipe dreams.”

Callahan was impressed by the group’s hard work and practical bent. Now she hopes changes will result. She said, “I hope it will give us a playbook of things we ought to be considering.”

It’s a playbook we hope the General Assembly will follow.